Institute wins UCL Green Impact Excellence Award

The Institute's Green
Impact team focused on making the Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) Laboratory more
efficient. The laboratory, part of the Wolfson Archaeological Science Laboratories, currently houses 4 SEMs, a
microprobe, FTIR, XRD and gold and carbon coaters.

The sustainability project, managed by Tom Gregory and Sandra Bond, involved the recycling of obsolete equipment, using an online
booking system to make more efficient use of the existing equipment, and in
collaboration with UCL Estates, driving forward improvements to metering and energy
efficiency. The number of chemicals used in the lab has also been reduced,
including the replacement of toxic cobalt containing silica desiccant with
inert equivalents.

As part of this initiative, funding is being sought to replace the microscope detectors with dry ones
which do not require liquid nitrogen. This would save approximately 125L of nitrogen per week and facilitate the
ventilation being turned off at night. It would also improve laboratory safety and oxygen
depletion alarms would no longer be required.